Meet Our Doctoral Students
Bio
Katie Simpson, MSW, LISW-S, is a PhD student in the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University. She is a licensed independent social worker. Katie earned her Bachelor of Science in Social Work with Research Distinction from The Ohio State University and her Master of Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis. Her research centers on community-based interventions, with a focus on food and nutrition security and chronic health. Katie spent more than five years working with non-profits in St. Louis, Missouri, where she collaborated in multidisciplinary teams to build Food-Is-Medicine interventions across a wide range of populations. Her work implementing a participant advisory council for Fresh Rx: Nourishing Healthy Starts, a whole-person nutrition-focused FIM intervention for perinatal individuals, was recognized in the 2019 Food is Medicine Research Action Plan as a promising best practice by the Aspen Institute. Findings from the Fresh Rx: Nourishing Health Starts program have been published in the American Journal of Health Promotion and the Journal of Public Health Research. Katie also works with the Age-Friendly Innovation Center, where she explores the intersection between food security and aging. Katie is a 2026 – 2027 fellow with the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work (AGESW) Pre-Dissertation Fellows program.
With a strong focus on integrating community and healthcare, Katie has professional experience in building collaborative partnerships with multi-state healthcare systems, Medicaid Managed Care Organizations, and community-based non-profits to support community-engaged programs addressing food and nutrition security. She also worked to organize and implement the first SAMHSA and USDA Food & Mood Summit for Regions 10 and 11 in 2023. In addition to her work within food and nutrition security and chronic health, Katie also has professional experience in care coordination and program management for Ryan White HIV case management, housing, and Ending the HIV Epidemic services.
Areas of Interest
Food and nutrition security
Chronic health and disease
Aging and gerontology
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